“The risk and potential for financial loss of owning and operating an Adventist Book Center run by the conference is too great, and as such, the conference shall not open an ABC either now or in the foreseeable future.” This was the outcome of a discussion on Sunday, Sept. 20, by the Minnesota Conference Board of Trustees.
The Board of Trustees requested a special committee to study the subject and various options as they related to maintaining an ABC locally, after the Iowa-Missouri Conference was no longer able to operate the Minnesota Branch and closed its doors at the end of August this year.
The ABC was owned and operated by the Iowa-Missouri Conference, which had been operating the Minnesota location since 2014 when Pacific Press stopped managing ABC stores. Declining sales and rising operating costs are among the reasons for the closure. This closure follows a string of ABC store closures nationwide, with the Rocky Mountain Conference closing theirs in 2019.
The Board of Trustees hopes that alternative means of ordering food may be possible in the future.
